Cinema 4D style navigation
Yes your solution would be to


Go to user preference > Interface > View Manipulation ...
Turn off "Rotate Around Selection"
Turn on "Auto Depth", "Cursor Depth", "Zoom to Mouse Position".


Now when you zoom take care to place your mouse at the object where you want to zoom or rotate around. It will now no longer slow down zoom when you hit a threshold. Instead it will always trys to determine the depth relative to your mouse position to any 3d surface you point the mouse cursor at.

Rotate around Selection is deceiving ... it gives you the notion that you would be rotating around a selected element. In reality the tool only rotate around the element when you zoom to selected first. Moreover when you select your next object it will use the formal element's scene depth. This is ok for single element selection, it however proves ineffective when you need to select multiple objects which just happens to be far apart.